TCA Day One: TV Land, Comedy Central, National Geographic Networks and More

Ed Martin Live from TCA - "Special from Jack Myers Media Business Report"

January 6, 2011 – The 2011 Winter Television Critics Association tour opened yesterday with panels and events that made dramatically clear how much television has changed over the years, beginning with appearances by stars from such classic series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and One Day at a Time and ending with a party featuring reality television personalities from a number of popular shows on E! including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Fashion Police and Kendra.

The day started off with press conferences for two TV Land series – the upcoming Retired at 35, which debuts on January 19, and the returning Hot in Cleveland, which will make its second season premiere that same night. Retired stars George Segal and Jessica Walter, two veteran actors whose television work extends back to the Sixties. (Walter has been on an extraordinary streak of late, with high profile roles in such recent series as Arrested Development, 90210 and Archer.) At one point during their panel Segal noted that TV Land president Larry W. Jones “blew my mind when he told me the highest rated show on [the network] was The Andy Griffith Show.”

Jones quickly corrected Segal, noting that the new highest rated show on TV Land is the more recent Everybody Loves Raymond, which is seemingly too young a show to be considered a classic. Still, Segal’s point was not lost. In today’s television environment The Andy Griffith Show is practically prehistoric.

The panel for Cleveland included series stars Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick, a group of television vets whose best known work would date back to the Seventies even if White weren’t included among them. (White began her television career in the Fifties and turns 89 later this month.) The sheer nostalgia -- not to mention the infectious energy -- that emanated from the stage during their session actually seemed to impress that ever-growing number of TCA members too young to remember even the more “modern” classics. (Don’t laugh. One recently confessed to me that she had never watched an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Another admitted he had never seen M*A*S*H! Like I said, Andy Griffith is a comparative dinosaur.)

Jones noted that TV Land is targeting viewers 40-54, though given the casting of these comedies (not to mention their tone and production style) I suspect that their appeal will extend right on up into the sixty-something generation.

Continuing the nostalgia wave, TV Land sibling CMT offered a session for its upcoming sitcom Working Class (premiering January 28), which includes in its cast another television legend, Ed Asner, and looks to be as sure of itself as Cleveland and Retired. (George Segal effectively described these shows as “cutting-edge comedy in the guise of an old-fashioned sitcom.”) Indeed, watching clips from all three of these shows and listening to their stars and executive producers talk about them I couldn’t help but think they would be right at home on CBS, currently the only broadcast network that understands the timeless appeal of three-camera sitcoms.

The day wasn’t all about scripted comedies and awesome stars from yesteryear. The day also included a session with dynamic Comedy Central star Daniel Tosh, whose Web-driven series Tosh.0 is as contemporary as it gets, showcasing and rudely deconstructing hugely popular viral videos. There were also sessions for two very promising documentary reality series that couldn’t be less alike: Coal, about West Virginia coal miners, set to debut later this spring on Spike, and The Nail Files, about the endlessly effervescent proprietor of a Hollywood nail salon popular with celebrities, which will premiere on TV Guide Network in June. Coal is from the executive producer of The Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers and will likely become the next water-cooler smash of its genre. Nail Files is from the executive producer of Jersey Shore. You should expect much media enthusiasm for Files, and thus a success for TV Guide, because these days media adoration alone (especially big love from print and Internet tabloids) is to make any reality show a success.

Speaking of can’t-fail publicity stunts, the networks of National Geographic, which were also included in yesterday’s offerings, brought on stage at the end of their block of press conferences an enormous Burmese python – on hand, along with Dangerous Encounters host Dr. Brady Barr and hard rocker and snake enthusiast Henry Rollins, to promote Nat Geo WILD’s upcoming three-night programming event WILD About Snakes. More critics crowded the stage to be photographed with the python than had surrounded any of the days’ celebrity guests. Of course, the python came with much more accommodating handlers.